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Old 02-26-2012, 11:25 PM
gg gg started this thread
 
Location: Pittsburgh
26,137 posts, read 25,983,158 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by squarian View Post
Absolutely agree - so much so that I discount any possibility of serious school district reform unless it comes in the form of an act of the Gen Ass.

Which is to say, never.
Yeah, mergers in our area have been horrible and completely destroyed entire districts. Churchill and Edgewood are prime examples of total destruction. Such a shame those places could keep their great districts and now they are crap. Ah well, hope we don't see any more of those horrible mergers. Glad I live in a district that only has to pick up one part of it. Sharpsburg. At least it isn't too big and can be overcome.
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Old 02-27-2012, 12:35 AM
 
43,011 posts, read 108,061,041 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by h_curtis View Post
Yeah, mergers in our area have been horrible and completely destroyed entire districts. Churchill and Edgewood are prime examples of total destruction. Such a shame those places could keep their great districts and now they are crap. Ah well, hope we don't see any more of those horrible mergers. Glad I live in a district that only has to pick up one part of it. Sharpsburg. At least it isn't too big and can be overcome.
Fox Chapel didn't just take one part of it. Fox Chapel merged with Indiana, O'Hara, Aspinwall, and Blawnox before merging with Sharpsburg. None of these mergers came easy. Initially, O'Hara didn't want to merge with Fox Chapel. O'Hara residents voted against it. And Fox Chapel fought hard to not merge with Sharpsburg. Ultimately the remaining mergers were forced by the state after a decade long battle that ended in the late 60s/early 70s. Fox Chapel and Shaler even went to court to try to stop the mergers but lost.

Interesting in the 90s, some Fox Chapel students went to Riverview to take advanced courses that weren't available at Fox Chapel. Fox Chapel willingly considered a merger with Riverview, but Riverview decided against a merger believing there were benefits to remaining a small school district.
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Old 02-27-2012, 12:39 AM
 
43,011 posts, read 108,061,041 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by squarian View Post
Absolutely agree - so much so that I discount any possibility of serious school district reform unless it comes in the form of an act of the Gen Ass.

Which is to say, never.
Never say, never.

Many of the prior mergers were forced from county and state levels.

Some mergers are initiated and agreed upon between districts on their own though.
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Old 02-27-2012, 08:23 AM
gg gg started this thread
 
Location: Pittsburgh
26,137 posts, read 25,983,158 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopes View Post
Fox Chapel didn't just take one part of it. Fox Chapel merged with Indiana, O'Hara, Aspinwall, and Blawnox before merging with Sharpsburg. None of these mergers came easy. Initially, O'Hara didn't want to merge with Fox Chapel. O'Hara residents voted against it. And Fox Chapel fought hard to not merge with Sharpsburg. Ultimately the remaining mergers were forced by the state after a decade long battle that ended in the late 60s/early 70s. Fox Chapel and Shaler even went to court to try to stop the mergers but lost.

Interesting in the 90s, some Fox Chapel students went to Riverview to take advanced courses that weren't available at Fox Chapel. Fox Chapel willingly considered a merger with Riverview, but Riverview decided against a merger believing there were benefits to remaining a small school district.
1. I assure you Fox Chapel is light years ahead of Riverview in every way.
2. It is sad Fox Chapel got stuck with Sharpsburg. Imagine how high the test score average would be if Sharpsburg wasn't in the district.
3. Not sure what a point would be that O'Hara wouldn't want to merge with FC. It would be obvious the parents thought their kids would be looked down on with that money status crap. Most kids could care less about such a thing these days, but in the '70s it might have been a little different.
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Old 02-27-2012, 10:18 AM
 
73 posts, read 120,320 times
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I wasn't trying to be revolutionary. I was actually proposing a very reactionary idea about consolidating school districts but spreading the students into micro-schools. Fuel prices will keep rising. Energy costs will keep rising. Teacher compensation can be controlled much easier than these two globally determined expenses. Busing students to a central monster energy hog will continue to get more and more expensive. Either school taxes will keep rising or a new approach has to be considered.
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Old 02-27-2012, 10:26 AM
 
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I suspect the impact of rising fuel/energy prices on ideal school size will depend greatly on local population density.
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Old 02-27-2012, 10:44 AM
 
Location: North by Northwest
9,340 posts, read 13,010,796 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by happywithbraddock View Post
I wasn't trying to be revolutionary. I was actually proposing a very reactionary idea about consolidating school districts but spreading the students into micro-schools. Fuel prices will keep rising. Energy costs will keep rising. Teacher compensation can be controlled much easier than these two globally determined expenses. Busing students to a central monster energy hog will continue to get more and more expensive. Either school taxes will keep rising or a new approach has to be considered.
I suspect the redundancy of a million tiny schools with a million tiny administrations would prove a far greater burden.
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Old 02-27-2012, 10:48 AM
 
Location: North by Northwest
9,340 posts, read 13,010,796 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by h_curtis View Post
1. I assure you Fox Chapel is light years ahead of Riverview in every way.
2. It is sad Fox Chapel got stuck with Sharpsburg. Imagine how high the test score average would be if Sharpsburg wasn't in the district.
3. Not sure what a point would be that O'Hara wouldn't want to merge with FC. It would be obvious the parents thought their kids would be looked down on with that money status crap. Most kids could care less about such a thing these days, but in the '70s it might have been a little different.
It's "sad" Fox Chapel got stuck with Sharpsburg? Your district is still one of the best in the state. Would you really deny Sharpsburg kids such an immense opportunity so your district can bump itself up a notch or two in the rankings? Would you also say the same of Leet/Leetsdale re: Quaker Valley?
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Old 02-27-2012, 11:25 AM
 
7,112 posts, read 10,135,076 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by h_curtis View Post
Yeah, mergers in our area have been horrible and completely destroyed entire districts. Churchill and Edgewood are prime examples of total destruction. Such a shame those places could keep their great districts and now they are crap. Ah well, hope we don't see any more of those horrible mergers. Glad I live in a district that only has to pick up one part of it. Sharpsburg. At least it isn't too big and can be overcome.
Are you sure it is because of the mergers or instead the effects that precipitated the mergers? In other words, sans the mergers, things might be just as bad or possibly worse.
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Old 02-27-2012, 11:43 AM
 
Location: O'Hara Twp.
4,359 posts, read 7,532,111 times
Reputation: 1611
I think this is what Curtis meant to say but he wanted to start an argument instead.

Here is the excert from the Allegheny Institute:

The Pittsburgh Public School system is too expensive, continues to suffer from declining enrollment despite the creation of the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship program, and academic performance is not commensurate with expenditures.

Pittsburgh Public Schools

Kind of interesting in that the Allegheny Institute says that the district should be cutting more in copmarison with the PAT problem where they have basically said the state needs to start writing bigger checks.

So, does Propel, for example, get 21000, which is the cost of educating a student in the PPS, from the city for each student enrolled?
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